Berkeley play looks back at era when U.S. government blocked Chinese immigrants (Mercury News)
Tommy Bo and Tess Lina star in Lloyd Suh’s “The Far Country,” which recalls the treatment of Asian immigrants on Angel Island during the Chinese Exclusion Act. Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre
March 11, 2024
By Sam Hurwitt
There’s no shortage of shameful chapters in our nation’s history, but one that’s discussed today less often than many others is the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Signed into law by President Chester Alan Arthur in 1882, the law prohibited nearly all immigration from China after several decades of relying on Chinese workers for hard jobs such as building the transcontinental railroad. The law wasn’t repealed even in part until 1943.
“The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first legislation ever to specifically restrict people based on nation of origin,” notes playwright Lloyd Suh. “And for a very long time it was the only one, until Trump’s Muslim ban.”